Sunday, July 6, 2014

Summer Resources for Students with Special Needs


1. Got Friends.com- This website offers a summer camp sponsored by the Friendship Circle for children with disabilities.


2. Federation for Children with Special Needs-This website is a camp directory focuses on children with special needs and allows you to search by disability category.

3. National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities- This site has many links that contain summer camp or other summer opportunities for children with disabliites.

4.   LD Online- This site does not offer specific camp recommendations; however it provides articles that will give parents the right questions and and guidance of how to select the perfect camp for their child.


5. Mommy Poppins- This is a great site that has many activities ranging from camps, classes, parties, and weekend activities for children with special needs. You can search by area: Valleys, Westside, Hollywood, and Downtown LA


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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Summer Math Resources- Keep you sons and daughters' skills strong over the summer!

Just because its summer doesn’t mean that your kids should not practice math. In fact, in order to retain their skills from the previous year they should continue to do weekly practice. Here are some great sites that offer math practice. I highly recommend Tenmarks as I used it this year with my class.


 1.  Tenmarks.com- This program offers a diagnostic assessment and also allows the parent to hand pick specific standards/concepts to work on. In addition, the program offers video lessons and hints for each problem.  As your child completes the exercises you can monitor their progress and choose more exercises in their areas of weakness.  This program usually costs $39.95 but it is free for the summer.


2. Leap Ahead- This program is geared for students entering grades 3 to 9. It provides 4 assignments per week for a total of 8 weeks. It includes interactive worksheets that are aligned to the Common Core State Standards and students can find their mistakes and scores right away. Leap Ahead also offers an online report to track progress and scores and a printable certificate upon completion of the program.  The cost is $24.95 for the first child and $19.95 for additional siblings.

3. Math.com-This site is organized by math subject and then by topic. It includes all levels of math from basic math to Algebra to Geometry and even Calculus. I really liked it as it as every topic is defined in simple terms, in more specific terms, with examples and then finally the student can practice the concept. This site also includes unit quizzes, games, and calculators. This site is more self directed so if you have a son or daughter who is self motivated, this site is an excellent source.


3.  National Council of Teachers of Mathematics- This website offers a variety of math games as well as paper based games to improve students’ math skills over the summer. These games are free.

4. Homeschool Math- This site is geared for homeschooling; however, it is a great summer resources for all grade levels including high school math. It includes free math worksheets, lessons, online math games, ebooks, reviews and more.  The resources focus on students’ understanding of concepts rather than rote memorization.